A Bleeding Gem
by RurouniZakruo
Summary: When a devastating earthquake hits Waffle Island, many are left dead. Akari, a young farmer and wife to Julius, was one of them. He tries to adapt to life away from this Island, will Julius ever recover from this loss, or be lost in depression forever?
1. Prologue

**Hello! This is my second fanfiction (following the great disaster that was the Pokemon fanfic *shivers*) I would like to give special thanks to my good friend xMiyumiChanx for helping me edit this beast of a word document (helping is an understatement actually :)P) and I hope you all enjoy! **

**!Disclaimer I do not own Harvest Moon or any of it's characters!**

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><p>Prologue<p>

The fog slowly rolled into the cold sea surrounding Waffle Island, as the doctor Jin walked around his home to go to work at the clinic. He noted the unusual coldness and hidden surroundings, and the lack of the sound of animals and activity around the Maple Lake. Leisurely fixing his bifocals he continued down the path and noted even the absence of the usual town's folk, including Gill, who was always on a tight schedule.

Jin gradually opened the door to his clinic and let in the crisp smell of medicine and sanitizer overcame his senses. Looking around for Irene to help him with shorting medicine he found her reading in the corner.

"Terrible day isn't it Jin?" she commented looking up at the young doctor.

"Something is off, I can't nail it though, something's coming the so many strange things are happening today", he stated to her, hoping to hear her theory.

"They probably are just staying in their burrows during this cold morning, as are most of the villagers", Irene gently reassured him.

Jin nodded uncertainly as he walked over to the counter and started taking inventory of the medicines he had stashed up, the only noise being that of a distant dog barking.

Suddenly his eye caught something as he looked over the cough medicine. The thick liquid inside of it was steadily washing back and forth, the waves getting bigger and quicker as he watched.

Bit by bit as the floor began to shake as well; realization dawned on Jin as to what was happing.

"Irene, get out it's an earthquake!" he yelled as the real power of the earthquake began to show; shaking the building unmercifully, the dog's barks increasing.

Irene stood up in panic and started to go for the door but fell down from the trembling and lack of footing. Vials were bursting and hazardous liquids fell on the ground.

Jin, grabbing his bearings, ran to Irene and helped her out of the clinic and into the town square.

Outside people were running around franticly as they tripped and stood up just to fall down again from the shaking earth.

The young doctor and many others could only watch in horror as the town hall crashed to the floor crumbling.

Chaos was everywhere, the gas lines were starting to break and a fire had started in the Sundae Inn and was quickly spreading to the rest of the town, but a water pipe burst and dowsed most of the fire, but a b it too late to save the inn.

The earthquake seemed as if it would never let up, but as quick as it came, it disappeared, with only the damage of the town to show it was ever there.

"Oh my Goddess", Luna gently muttered as she stared at the demolished Town Hall before rapidly running towards it.

"Gill! Gill!" she desperately called out for her fiancée as she reached the fallen rubble, only to find him buried in the debris, unconscious.

"Jin! Help!" Luna yelled with tears forming in her eyes. Jin swiftly ran to the spot to see the crushed man, but as he reached him he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"The wood hasn't broken anything and he seems to just have fainted from shock. Don't worry he should make a full recovery," Jin soothingly told her.

"Thank The Harvest Goddess!" she cried as she sat down next to Gill, waiting for him to wake up.

Jin looked around without hurry only to step back in disgust as he saw Hamilton, broken and crushed beyond repair in the hidden rubble of the town hall.

Jin averted his eyes from the sight and walked away to check on the rest of the survivors and the casualties.

As he scanned the scene he saw Chase and Yolanda mourning over Maya's motionless body, all covered in soot and small burns from the brief fire, and it wasn't long before Chase broke down and started crying over her rigid body.

It seemed as if half the villagers hadn't made it out alive, and Jin was still on edge, fearing aftershocks, or worse a tsunami that would wipe out the entire island.

Calvin and Owen were nowhere to be found and if Jin's instincts were correct they were in the mines, which would most likely mean that the two of them had been crushed in a mine in during the quake. He then gasped happily after seeing that Phoebe had not suffered that fate.

Still, it seemed from Anissas's cries that both her parents hadn't been as lucky and were now gone from the island forever.

Pascal, Toby, Ozzie, and Paolo all alive, due to being at sea fishing during the earthquake and were now docking there boat to see the damage done to Waffle Island.

Luke and Dale were standing far away from everyone else, grieving over Bo, who had apparently been crushed by a falling tree while they were evaluating.

No one had seen or heard from the residents of Brownie Ranch, and knowing how big the ranch was and how vulnerable everyone was to earthquakes Jin could only assume the worse.

Gill was now wide awake and was limping over to Candace and Shelly, got out just in time.

Jin walked over to Irene and turned to get away from the chaos when the rapid clang of horse shoes on the cobblestone got his attention. Jin turned in high hopes to maybe see Renee or that Akari had made it but instead saw Julius's black horse, with him riding on top breathing heavily and his eyes filled with panic.

Jin looked up at Julius and didn't know how to react until Julius exclaimed, "Someone help! Akari and Victoria are trapped under the houses rubble; I'm not strong enough to help them! Anyone please help me!" he begged desperately as the ground gently shook with one of the first after shocks.

At first it seemed like no one was willing to get up and help until Jin walked over to Julius and told him to get back to the house and wait for him there.

Julius noted hastily and turned his horse, Ebony, around and galloped back to the Caramel River District.

Jin gathered Luke, Dale, and Toby to help with getting the young rancher and her daughter out from under the destroyed home.

When the five men arrived at the once lush and beautiful ranch land, Jin was taken back in horror. The trees were cracked and bent over, the crops uprooted, and the vegetables smashed and there juicy insides were disturbingly similar to spilled human guts.

Julius was over by the house rubble pulling in vain to pull one of the wooden beams off of the huge pile of fallen material.

Instantly Jin knew what was hiding under the cover of debris, but he didn't want to believe it and ran with the others to pull off the beams. One after another they removed stones and wooden beams to find remains of furniture and cooking equipment.

Finally, the six men uncovered Akari from the crushing beams, clutching her daughter in her arms.

Julius turned to Jin, his eyes ablaze with fear and panic as he hastily spoke, "Jin, you can help her, right?"

Jin remained silent, Toby and Luke both looked away, knowing the truth and not wanting to be the ones to have to tell the young fashion designer.

"You can, right?" Julius asked hopefully, his voice cracking.

"I'm sorry", Jin silently told him, not looking in Julius's eyes.

"No…" Julius breathed terrified, "It can't be true".

"Akari? Wake up, your awake right, you too Vicky?" Julius breathed desperately, doing his best to ignore the truth, "Right?"

The two girls remained unmoving and it slowly it dawned on Julius that he would never hear either of the two girls' voices again. He rapidly broke down and started lamenting over the two dead bodies.

"No! You can't be gone! You just can't! What will I do Akari? How can I live without you?" he wailed.

Jin painfully looked away from the depressing scene and looked up the mountain to see that the Goddess Tree had fallen in the earthquake.

"I'm so sorry", Jin said to Julius as he walked over to the demolished barn to grab some fodder for Ebony, the only surviving animal, who was staring sadly at the whole scene.

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><p><strong>Well, I hope you enjoyed it so far, I am going to try and update every Friday so look forward to next weeks chapter and until then hope you have a great week. Rate and Review please I love criticism (well, the <strong>_**good**_** kind at least)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! Now I know I said I was going to update on Friday, but I decided to update on my favorite day, Thursday instead! So you get it one day early! Hussah!**

**Once again, thanks to xMiyumiChanx for editing! **

**!Disclaimer I do not own Harvest Moon or any of it's characters!**

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

Several hours had passed since the devastating earthquake and rescue boats were now arriving to help the survivors on the island, who had all accumulated in the only surviving building, the general store.

Chase was at a makeshift fire stove cooking some cheap ramen from the store for the survivors. Jin was going around, taking care of minor injuries and comforting those who had lost someone in the earthquake.

Chase poured some of the instant meal into a small bowl and handed it to Candace to pass around to other people to eat.

Candace looked around to see who still didn't have any of the food, and found Julius sitting alone at one of the corner tables, with his head laying on it and his eyes closed as if he was asleep, but she could tell he was awake none the less.

"Umm, Julius?" Candace muttered uncomfortably.

Julius acknowledged that he heard her by slowly opening his red eyes and looking at her.

"You should eat something, you're, umm, hungry right?" Candace asked nervously.

"Not really", Julius muttered as he closed his eyes again.

"But you haven't eaten since yesterday", Candace mumbled quietly, "Uh, I'll just leave it here and you can eat it later", she finally said as she sat the steaming bowl on the table next to him.

As Candace walked away one of the search and rescue team member from the mainland walked over to Julius and cleared his throat to get his attention.

"I'm sorry to wake you but, I need your name and that will be all", he said.

"Julius", he quietly replied.

The man seemed taken aback by this, obviously thinking Julius was a girl and the shock of his voice and name being male, but for the first time, Julius didn't care what he thought. He was too engrossed in his own thoughts to think clearly about anything but that of which he didn't want to think about.

Jin noted that Julius wasn't touching his food as the man quickly walked away while muttering 'country folk', and walked over to Julius.

"Eat your food", Jin ordered as he walked over. Julius simply shook his head in denial.

"Julius as your doctor, I'm commanding you to eat", Jin said, kinder this time, but stern nonetheless.

Hesitantly Julius pulled up his head and grabbed the nearest par of chop sticks and reluctantly crewed on one of the noodles but stopped eating once Jin left to go check on the other patients.

Gill gradually limped up to the center of the store and clapped his hands three times to get everyone's attention.

"Good morning everyone. Now, I realize that we have suffered many tragedies and have lost most of our homes in this terrible, terrible earthquake, as such our town has no choice but to leave for the main land and start a new life there", Gill announced to the crowd.

"Start a new life? Won't we start rebuilding Waffle Island?" Chase asked as he looked up at Gill.

"I fear that the damage is far too great. It would be best if we all went our separate ways on the main land and continued to live our lives", he answered to Chase.

"We are all leaving tomorrow. Return to what's left of your homes and get whatever you can", Gill said as he summoned Luna to help him with his twisted ankle.

Time past as many people went to see what they could find and eventually, Julius went to see what he could find in the remains of his household.

As he walked out to the desolated street he found Ebony lying down and he walked over to the young black filly and patted her neck few times before mounting her and encouraging her on to the remains of the farm.

As she slowly walked by the members of the Maple Lake District Julius turned to see many people searching through the remains of their crumbled homes. Quickly he urged Ebony on to a trot to move towards the demolished ranch.

The other boys had removed all the deceased from sight so Julius could rummage through the lot without the worry that he would run across anything ghastly.

Hesitantly he got of Ebony and tethered her to the nearby post. After he walked over to the demolished house and leaned down and started brushing around the broken glass and fallen wood.

Thankfully he found the hidden money stash, and most of the money had made it through unscathed. As he dug through the other things he found a collection of vanity products that he quickly discarded in a moment of rage and grabbed the surviving clothing and put it aside for the journey to the main land. Finally, something caught his eye: a broken glass picture frame, with a family portrait inside of it. Quietly he reached for it, not looking at it once and took it out of the frame folded it and stuck it in his pocket, to hide it later in a jewel box.

As Julius guided Ebony back to the main town square and tied her up out side of the general store. He gradually pushed open the door to find most people had also returned carrying similar items and trying to find a soft spot to sleep in the dusty, worn down building. Families were snuggled up together and those who suffered losses still seemed to have someone to be with. Apart from, Julius who just didn't want to be with anyone at all at the moment. He randomly grabbed two of his winter coats and made a make ship bed using one to sleep on and the other to cover his body from the cool fall air.

Jin looked at him with annoyance as he closed his eyes to fall asleep, knowing fully well that he hadn't finished eating before he had left to gather what ever he could from his household.

Jin looked worryingly at his check board, knowing what Julius was going through. Sadly he recalled the face of his late wife, but he feared something else. Jin had been able to get through his sorrow because his late wife had told him on her death bed to not fall down that dark road, and Jin used everything in him not to, but Julius didn't have such a luxury. Jin seriously feared that this could cause him to fall into deep depression, and Jin knew first hand that pulling some one from that void was near impossible to do. Recalling an old villager who was dumped by her boyfriend for another girl. She ended up commuting suicide, despite the combined efforts of him and her family to pull her back.

Jin laid down on a table cloth and sent a prayer to the Harvest Goddess that he wouldn't have to see such a thing happen to another person. As he did he couldn't help but realized that almost everyone else was praying as well.

"But, Goddess you can't be dieing!" Ben wailed out scared as he watched the beautiful women in front of him pale out.

"Without the tree, I cannot continue on. So many people passed away today. Such negative energy, I join them", the Harvest Goddess told the little sprite sadly.

"But if you die what will become of nature?" Alan squeaked as he ran up to the bottom of her dress to try and pull her back into the living world.

"I am afraid that nature will collapse and the balance will never be restored, unless humans choose to live life like the people on this island, but we all know that the humans in the cities are different, nature will collapse my friends", she murmured quietly.

"No…" they all whimpered as she faded into the void.

"But, but what about Akari? Can't she help with the world?" Alan begged.

The Harvest Goddess smiled sadly as she faded into nothingness, mouthing 'she is no longer here'.

The five sprites didn't know how to take this message in till Ben fell down in shock and wailed, "It can't be!" The other sprites could only stare as realization dawned on them as well and they fell to the ground to grieve over the death of their best friend.

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><p><strong>Well I hope you enjoyed another chapter. Rate and Review to tell me what I can do better!<strong>


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